Bridgestone/firestone, Inc.

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC

Andrew Karl Reinhardt

John L Turner

David O Stalnaker

Stephen M Vossberg

Hidetoshi Yokota

John D Clothiaux

Steven Michael Vossberg

A pneumatic tire includes a body, a belt package, and a tread package. The tire includes a layer of rubber disposed between the body and the tread package. The layer of rubber creates a thickness of between about 0.5 millimeters and about 1.5 millimeters between the cords in the body and the cords in the belt package. The layer of rubber is fabricated from a rubber having a stiffness greater than the rubber in the body of the tire. This configuration provides a tire having improved cornering coefficient, reduced vibrational levels, and less coarse road noise with only a small increase in rolling loss.

Pneumatic tire having layer of rubber disposed between the body and belt package

An apparatus for determining lateral tire tread stiffness includes a holding fixture that is coupled to a loading fixture. The holding fixture includes a frame on which is mounted a rotary table that carries the tire tread specimen to be tested. The loading fixture includes a loading plate that can apply a normal loading force and a lateral loading force to the tire tread specimen. A processor receives data from a monitoring device which provides an indication of the deformation of the tire tread specimen as a lateral load is applied thereto. The processor also receives data from a load cell which monitors the amount of force applied to the tread specimen and correlates this data with the displacement data to determine stiffness properties of the tread specimen. The processor also controls the angular position of the rotary table to further analyze the tread stiffness of particular tire tread geometry.

Apparatus and related methods for determining lateral tire tread

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Akron, OH, United States of America

Andrew Karl Reinhardt